


destiny's plotline

by whichlights



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, What-If, lloyd fucked up so everyone suffers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2018-11-21 07:48:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11353038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whichlights/pseuds/whichlights
Summary: It wasn't supposed to be like this.Lloyd destroyed the Realm Crystal, and Morro intends to make good on his threat. Lloyd's on his own, except for the Cloud Kingdom monk that's helping him, for reasons he doesn't quite understand."Protect the scroll. Don't get caught. If you get caught, he'll kill you."





	1. Chapter 1

"How it works is you'll hand over the crystal, or say goodbye to your friend!"

Lloyd was cold still, from the chill of the cave. Cold from the metal pressed against his neck. Cold from the dread in his veins.

He opened his eyes to look at his friends. Kai, bright and made of something stronger than fire. Jay, fierce and quick to speak and to anger. Zane, true and trustworthy to the end. Cole, strong and always willing to fight for a cause. The greatest friends he could have ever asked for.

"I'm sorry," he rasped out. He was, truly and completely. "I couldn't stop him."

Morro was going to win.

Lloyd... lost.

Either his friends handed Morro the crystal, and maybe he got to live, or they didn't and he died. If Morro got the crystal, the world would be destroyed.

The decision was obvious, in Lloyd's mind. Why save one person, a broken boy who failed, when the entire world rested in the balance.

Lloyd felt his powers returning, slowly, weakly. Of course, he understood his power. It was a part of him, thrumming through his veins.

(Except when Morro possessed him and Lloyd's power had become wind. Wind, not green power. But that… wouldn't happen now. He was pretty sure.)

The important bit was that he understood his power enough to know he wasn't strong enough to use it in any great way. The second he did, he would probably black out.

"We'll give you the realm crystal!" Lloyd wanted to cry out, _Kai no!_ But his friend had already tossed the glittering blue gem into the air, up to Morro. Morro laughed and dropped Lloyd to the ground, reaching up to catch the realm crystal.

Lloyd screamed, standing up, and sent out a blast of green energy. It hit the crystal, and it shattered in midair. He collapsed.

There was quiet for a few moments.

Morro was the first to make a sound. It was a scream of rage. He grabbed Lloyd by the front of his gi and pulled him to his feet. "You. Insignificant. Brat." Morro spit the words.

" _You do not control me_." Lloyd's words echoed in the cave. A final statement.

Morro's eyes blazed with anger. Everything narrowed down to those two pin pricks of angry green. Lloyd felt sick.

"Lloyd!" He heard Kai call out.

"You had your chance!" Morro shrieked. "Now say goodbye! When I'm done with him, there won't even be a body! You will never see him again!"

Lloyd's world collapsed to nothing as a raging wind hit all the stalactites from the ceiling to cover the exit, and Morro dragged him away.

\---

He was bleeding, he realized numbly. There was a scratch on his neck, and several on his arms, like claw marks if he was honest.

Morro seemed highly annoyed, and very angry. His anger swirled inside of Lloyd's mind. "I _do_ control you." Morro had hissed, and possessed him again.

Lloyd could only wonder why in God's name Morro was dragging them both up the Wailing Alps. The Boar's Eye was about to pass over. The only reason they'd be here is if they were going to Cloud Kingdom, and Lloyd couldn't see any reason Morro would want to do that. He already had the Sword of Sanctuary.

 _Maybe he's returning it_ , Lloyd thought bitterly.

As Morro jumped through the Boar's Eye, he was silent. He usually spoke his plans out loud because he thought Lloyd hated it (he was right) but for once he didn't talk. The two of them had never communicated via their shared space in Lloyd's head and Lloyd wasn't about to let him.

Morro unpossessed Lloyd almost the exact moment they got into Cloud Kingdom. Lloyd's world started to be dotted with yellow, and he was in excruciating pain. He collapsed to the ground.

Morro huffed and dragged him to gates. "Fenwick!" He demanded. "Fenwick!"

The man Lloyd remembered dimly as Fenwick, the Head Writer, opened the gates. He looked pale. "Morro. You're here."

"And you know what I want." Morro dragged Lloyd inside, snarling. "His scroll. Give it to me."

"Only a monk can write in someone's scroll-"

"Then do it, damn you!" Morro spit. "Switch our destinies!"

Lloyd's blood went cold. Morro wanted to be the green ninja. He always had. And Morro got what he wanted.

Morro and Fenwick walked off, Morro angrily and Fenwick anxiously. Lloyd tried to stand, but he couldn't.

He lay there, every part of his body hurting, when a cloud monk in brown robes with the hood pulled up ran up to him.

"Hurry, get up!" The monk sounded like a girl. She pulled at his arm.

"Can't," Lloyd managed. He looked at her. Her eyes were wide, the color in them a thin ring around a pit of black. She was close enough to see the color, but there wasn't enough of it visible to tell. Her hair was long and brown, and shot through with streaks of golden blonde.

She hit herself in the forehead. "Right. Hold on. I'll be back. Don't move."

"Can't," Lloyd called after her as she ran off.

True to her word, she came back, a scroll and a quill in her hands. She unrolled it and started writing.

The monk grabbed his hand. "Quickly. We have to go, now."

"That's my scroll." Lloyd felt dumb for saying it, but it was.

"I nicked it from Fenwick while he was looking for Morro's. Come on!"

"I can't," Lloyd rasped.

Her eyes were wide. "Lloyd, after Morro switches your destinies so he can be the green ninja, he will _kill_ you."

"Maybe I should let him!" Lloyd screamed.

"You can't die here," she insisted. "Please, you're supposed to meet the love of your life when you're sixteen."

Lloyd turned red. "I'm not... all that into romance-"

"You're grey-acearo. I am too." She smiled knowingly. "The grey part is there for a reason. You'll like him. He works at a flower shop."

"Sounds like my type." Lloyd smiled weakly, but it wasn't happy. "Fine. Let's go."

They ran through Cloud Kingdom, and stole a boat. "The Boar's Eye is up ahead! There's our cue to blow this popsicle stand!"

They both screamed as they hit the Boar's Eye, and slid down the snow covered slope.

"My name is Rose, by the way!" She screamed as they dodged a tree.

"I thought the monks weren't supposed to interfere!" Lloyd yelled back.

"We're not! Rock!"

They hit the rock and went flying. Rose's hair flew all around her face. "Oh, this is going to hurt." Lloyd heard her say.

They crashed into the snowdrift.

\---

Eventually, they sat in the woods, a small fire warming them up. Rose had her hair tied back, and had shed her monk robes, revealing the jeans and loose tank top she had on underneath. She was analyzing his scroll intently in the firelight.

"Tell me more about this love of my life," Lloyd said casually. Rose sighed. "I shouldn't have told you that. The future is classified."

"Come on, just one thing! Please?"

"Lloyd, I'm serious. I can't tell you any more. Nothing you do will let you meet him sooner. So just relax and let it happen."

Lloyd leaned back against a tree and watched the fire, and then asked, "why did you help me?"

Rose sighed again, and rolled his scroll up. "Because it wasn't supposed to end like that. The strands of fate are... strange. Imagine each person's destiny is a time line, but there are a few fixed points, and the rest of the line is constantly shifting. Sometimes the line shifts enough to mess up the fixed points. The monks can help shape the lines, and we write the fixed points. It's like writing a book but you don't know the plot, just a few scenes you want, and those scenes can change based on how your plot progresses. You changed the plot by destroying the realm crystal."

"It was that or let Morro get it. Was that supposed to happen?"

"Lloyd, Kai heated up the crystal. It was going to burn him, and he would drop it into the river, and a lot of other stuff would happen that I don't want to explain right now, but you would end up back with your team, and have the realm crystal."

Lloyd looked at the ground. "The team. I need to see my friends, tell them I'm alive-"

"You can't do that," Rose said sadly. "Morro said they would never see you again. That's a definite in the time line. For this book, the plot can do anything but that. To see your friends again, you'd have to rewrite all their destinies, and we can't go back to Cloud Kingdom any time soon."

Lloyd nodded. "How did you know I was grey-acearo? I'm not out to, like, anyone."

"Because... okay, so, the Cloud Kingdom has rules about who can write in who's scrolls. I can write in your scroll because I'm like you. I'm grey-acearo, I'm bi, I'm genderfluid, I'm autistic. We're not exactly the same, and none of that manifests itself in the same way, but we're similar enough that I'm allowed to write in your scroll. So in a way, that's how I know."

"Did you write me figuring all that out?"

Rose snorted. "God, no. That's not my area of expertise. Every monk has a... a specialization, I guess, of what they tend to write."

"What do you do?"

Rose was silent. She was messing with a black ring on her right hand.

Lloyd changed the subject. "What next?"

"We're going to Ninjago City. You need a safe place to lie low. Fenwick and Morro are going to be looking for you."

"Rose? Your scroll is still in Cloud Kingdom, isn't it?"

"Obviously."

"Could they use it to hurt you?"

She paused. "Come on, it's late. Go to sleep, kid."

"I'm fourteen. And a half."

"I'm fifteen. And a half. I claim seniority, and also I saved your ass. Go to sleep."


	2. Chapter 2

Lloyd woke up with an idea. 

"Nya," he said, shaking Rose awake. 

"No, this is Rose," she groaned. "Leave a freaking message. Beep off."

"No, I mean... Nya! She wasn't there! Morro didn't tell her she'd never see me again! I can see Nya!"

Rose got up, slowly stretching. "That might actually work."

"She can pass the message to the others, that I'm not dead, and..." Lloyd could feel his grin. 

"I knew I liked Nya for a reason." Rose rubbed her eyes. "But before that- breakfast."

"You not a morning person?"

"God, no," she yawned. "I live on a plane of reality that only exists between the hours of noon and two a.m."

"Sorry for waking you up."

"It's fine."

"Rose, who can write in your scroll?" She was older than him by a year, but she seemed younger with her wide eyes, and the shadows under them.

"The Head Writer can write in anyone's scroll. Fenwick has four assistants that manage the monks. Aribess is the one in charge of my sector. So Fenwick or Aribess."

"Great."

"I'll be fine," she insisted. "I'm more worried about ghost bitch finding us."

Lloyd snorted. "Ghost bitch?"

"Yah. I mean, why not?" Rose's stomach growled. 

"Come on. Let's avoid ghost bitch and go find you some food."

\---

It was two in the afternoon when they made it to the tea shop. Lloyd took a deep breath and walked in. 

Nya was sorting shelves. "Sorry, I'm the only one here."

"Figures," Lloyd managed. Nya froze, and whipped around to see him. "Lloyd!"

She jumped on him with a hug. "You're alive!"

"Yah, that was my fault." Rose raised her hand from her place outside the shop. 

"Who's she?" Nya asked. 

"Cloud monk. Morro wanted to switch me and his destinies so he could be the green ninja, so Rose stole my scroll and we bolted."

"Come in." Nya insisted. "The others will be here soon-"

"I can't stay in one place long." It tore Lloyd apart to admit it. "Morro and Fenwick are looking for us."

"I stole a scroll of destiny. Unless I can prove I had a very good reason for taking a scroll out of Cloud Kingdom, I'll be charged with high treason," Rose said. 

"And if Morro finds me, he might decide he's done with me being... resistant. I'm not sure what he'll do to me. But it scares me to think about."

Nya hugged him one last time. "Go. Be safe. Get in touch when you can."

"Tell the others I'm alive and that I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about."

 _But I do._ "I'll see them soon," Lloyd promised, and he ran. 

\---

Rose said she had hideouts all over Ninjago. Lloyd didn't doubt her, but he wanted to know why a Cloud Kingdom monk would have hideouts in Ninjago City. 

Nothing about her made sense. 

Rose tapped on a wall, and a hidden door popped open in an alleyway. "In here."

"When did you have time to set this place up?" Lloyd asked as the door shut behind them, leaving them in darkness. 

She didn't answer. "Light?"

Lloyd snapped his fingers and a ball of green light floated beside him. 

The hideout wasn't big. It was definitely meant for only two or three people, with a few sleeping bags pushed up against the walls. There were chests with labels in masking tape and sloppy, loopy handwriting. Rose immediately went to a small one, opened it, and tossed something in it to Lloyd. 

Out of habit, he caught it. Then he stared at it to figure out what it was. A green fidget spinner. 

"You're joking."

"It's original purpose _is_ for stimming. I got a whole chest of stim toys here." She rummaged through it and pulled out a small blue stingray. "Lloyd, meet Rey."

"What are we doing here?" 

"This place is reinforced with magic and deepstone. We'll be safe here for a day or two while we plan our next move." Rose flipped a switch, and lights went on. 

Lloyd looked around. "What's in the rest of those chests?"

"Weapons, clothes, non perishable foodstuffs, et cetera, et cetera." Rose waved her hand. 

"Okay, what's your deal? How do you just happen to have a magic hideout in the middle of Ninjago City? How can I trust you when you know practically everything about you but I know practically nothing about you?"

Rose looked at her stingray. "If I wanted to hurt you, I would have left you in Cloud Kingdom to die."

"Maybe this is all a ploy to gain my trust."

"Why would I need that if I was going to hurt you? Come on, practically, I've had my chance if I wanted you dead or hurt. I want to help."

"Then tell me something about yourself," Lloyd challenged. "Not something you would know from me."

"My favorite color is glitter."

Lloyd blinked. "You're serious?"

"It is a color! I also like black, blue, and green. Not really a fan of yellow."

"Your favorite color so does not count!"

"Then what does?"

"Something about your past. You know mine, and it isn't fair that I know nothing about you when you have my literal life in your hands."

Rose looked at the scroll and sighed. "I... I have a little brother. He's five and a half years younger than me. Does that count?"

"Yes. We're good. For now."

"Great." Rose stood up, putting her stingray on her shoulder. "Rey and I are going to do a perimeter check. You settle in."

"Wait. I just want to ask. Is Rey actually sentient? Is the stingray magic?"

"No, she isn't."

Lloyd pulled out a sleeping bag and Rose walked out. He was asleep before she got back. 

\---

When Lloyd woke up, there was fast food on top of a crate. "Morning," Rose yawned. "Breakfast." She pointed at the bag. 

"What is that?"

"Sausage-Egg McMuffin. You want it?"

"Sure." Lloyd pulled himself up, and grabbed the bag. 

"When you want a change of clothes out of your smelly stuff, that box is full of stuff. Gas station down the road has showers."

"Is that why your hair is wet?"

"Actually, it's raining. Great, right?"

Lloyd snorted and took a bite of his breakfast. "No wonder you look so alert. That must have been a shock so early in the morning."

"I _despise_ rain. It's cold, and wet, and comes down too awkwardly," Rose huffed. 

"At least it'll keep ghosts at bay," Lloyd offered. 

"I'm more worried about Fenwick. He's… something."

"He locked my friends up with a monster and allowed Morro to get the Sword of Sanctuary." Lloyd was there for it. It still made him angry. He remembered trying to fight Morro off and scream at the Master Writer to help him or at least screw off. 

"He's selfish and only cares about his destiny. How he became Master Writer, I'll never know."

"What about you? What do you care about?"

"Getting out of this in one piece," she muttered. "And keeping the fabric of reality together, and keeping you from getting hurt."

“Alright then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my tumblr is witchlightsands, i love ignoring my projects for months

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is witchlightsands and this wasnt INTENDED to be a self insert but now you know


End file.
